Why Use Localization Services?
Only about 20% of the world speaks English, and localization is how you connect with the other roughly 6 billion people in the world!
According to CSA Research, a market research firm, 76% of international respondents prefer to buy from websites in their native language.
The importance of that cannot be understated considering there are 4.7 billion internet (Statista) users worldwide and — get this — Statista reports the U.S. isn’t even in the top 10 in the world in terms of the percentage of the population with internet access!
Thus, there’s an enormous opportunity for companies who localize content to make it resonate with international audiences.
What Are The Benefits of Localization?
In terms of e-commerce, localization brings more traffic. Neil Patel, a marketing expert who serves as a consultant to Amazon, among other global corporations, increased his web traffic by 47% after he translated and localized his website for 82 languages.
More importantly, increased traffic results in increased sales.
A recent industry study showed that every $1 invested in website localization returns $25 dollars. That’s the type of ROI you can achieve with the dedicated, personalized touch of iTi’s project managers and linguists, who are available 24/7/365!
The world is full of consumers. The companies that maximize their profits the most — Apple, Coca-Cola, Airbnb, and Netflix, to name a few – figure out how to reach and cater to consumers at all corners of the earth.
This strategy isn’t exclusive to those enormous, international brands. In fact, they became international because they started by acting local (Coke launched an enormously successful campaign 20 years ago called “Think Global, Act Local”).
Coke’s campaign was borne out of a pretty basic premise: To sell to the world, you need to speak to the world in their language, both literally and figuratively. Selling to the world requires more than translation — it demands localization.
Coke didn’t just translate its products and marketing campaigns, it localized them. The company runs campaigns like “2nd Lives,” which finds creative uses for recycled bottles to help combat the waste problem in Southeast Asia, an issue unique to that region.
That is an example of how localization is its own unique service. Localization differs from translation because it goes beyond a word-for-word process. Localization adapts text, images, video, and other content for cultural and societal differences based on the location of your target audience.
When you show your audience you understand them and their culture, you build trust and credibility, two enormous factors in customer acquisition and, most importantly, customer retention.
Why iTi?
iTi’s 30-plus years of industry experience and our “always open” approach ensures a smooth process that results in high-quality translation and localization every time.
We have more than 10,000 linguists all over the world, which means we know exactly how to capture the attention of consumers anywhere you want to be.
In addition, our team is skilled at terminology management by creating a tailored database that will help create a consistent translation and localization experience each time. Have a tight deadline? Not an issue. Our turnaround times are unparalleled, but not at the expense of quality.
No matter how much technology and automation seem like they’re taking over, nothing will ever replace human translation because of one single factor: nuance.
There are subtleties involved with communicating — especially in different languages — that AI simply cannot grasp. Localization is at the heart of those subtleties. Localization is how you speak to — and ultimately sell to — the entire world.
Types of Localization
Website Localization
Digital Media Localization
SEO TranslationGoogle receives roughly 63,000 searches per second! You’ll want to make sure you are casting the widest net, which means using the right keywords depending on the region
- International SEO is crafting SEO copy and keywords that appeal to English-speaking markets in the U.K., Canada, and Australia and Spanish speaking markets in Latin America and Europe, and so on.
- Multilingual SEO is a more straight-forward process that involves finding the equivalent keywords in the foreign languages.
Software and Applications Localization
E-Learning
E-learning isn’t just for students. Business Wire reported in October of 2019 that the corporate e-learning market will reach nearly $50 billion by 2026. E-learning localization is the key to making sure everyone in your company – domestic and international employees – understands company policies and training.
Video Game Localization
Subtitles and Voice-OversA recent survey by Verizon found that 92% of U.S. consumers watch mobile video with the sound off. That means you need to make sure your captions are translated and localized. In terms of voice overs, localization is important because translating certain languages can expand your audio content by as much as 30%. We make sure that the timing of the voice-over matches perfectly so you receive a professionally dubbed video.